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By PAUL BRENNER
Silent cinema is a mother
lode of undiscovered treasures, whether it is a
rediscovered "lost" film of Lon Chaney, a critical
appraisal of a neglected comic, or a
reconstruction of an epic. Then too there are
one-time popular stars that have faded into
obscurity due to the deterioration and loss of
their film legacy.
Such is the case with ingénue Olive Thomas. Most
of her films are lost or in a state of advanced
decomposition and from a 2005 viewpoint it is hard
to gauge or even to phantom her popularity in the
late teens. Her early death in Paris, just before
her twenty-sixth birthday under curious
circumstances (by poisoning -- but was it a
mistake, self-inflicted, or a murder) also
contributed to her artistic neglect since Thomas's
questionable death was the first of the infamous
Hollywood scandals of the early twenties, followed
by the deaths of Virginia Rappe (and the
destruction of Fatty Arbuckle's film career),
William Desmond Taylor, and Wallace Reid.
Hollywood's puritanical propensity to sweep
everything under the rug also contributed to the
loss of Thomas's films.
But now Olive Thomas makes a negligible return
from obscurity in the minimal "The Olive Thomas
Collection" from Image Entertainment and Milestone
Films. The "collection" doesn't consist of much --
a Selznick comedy from 1920, "The Flapper," and a
documentary about Olive Thomas from 2004, "Olive
Thomas: Everybody's Sweetheart."
"The Flapper," a gentle comedy about pretensions
and airs, was deftly written by Frances Marion and
breezily directed by Alan Crosland, later the
clunky director of Jolson's "The Jazz Singer,"
although here betraying a distinctive comic touch
that includes creative use of title cards and even
an eye-blinked wall-mounted moose head. Thomas
plays a young woman in a small town who is
considered wild because she sneaks off to have an
ice cream with a cadet. To curtail her heathen
abandon, Thomas is packed off to a girl's boarding
school where she hangs out with other girls of her
ilk ("Limbs of Satan from old family trees"). But
since the boarding school is next to a military
school, Thomas continues to sneak out 'cause she
can't resist the boys -- at least until a real man
of about fifty picks up her -- in the snow.
"The Flapper" is clearly designed as a Thomas
vehicle and Thomas effectively carries the frothy
proceedings, acting with a tongue-in-cheek
insouciance like sexy Dorothy Gish. But Thomas is
more than just a pretty face and demonstrates a
Marion Davies-like slapstick strain, particularly
when she does a delightful jig as she plays a
ukulele.
The documentary, "Olive Thomas: Everybody's
Sweetheart" by Andi Hicks and executive produced
by Hugh Hefner (!), effectively positions Thomas's
popularity in America of the 1910s. Hicks
demonstrates the across-the-board popularity of
Thomas as a model for magazine illustrators, a
Ziegfeld showgirl, and as an early Hollywood star.
Hicks dwells a big too much on speculation about
her death but all in all the film is a neat
introduction to Thomas's career. In fact, the
documentary makes one wonder about Thomas's other
extant films. True most of her films are lost but
her Triangle Productions, "An Even Break" and
"Love's Prisoner," and the Selznick films "The
Spite Bride" and "Everybody's Sweetheart" appear
to be available in some form. So why not include
some of them on the collection? After all, one
film does not a reappraisal make.
Bonus materials include a re-enactment of
anecdotes about Olive Thomas, quoted from Billy
Bitzer's autobiography and the writings of
screenwriter Lenore Coffee, bizarrely reenacted by
Thomas's grand niece Nora Erhardt; an illustrated
interview with Thomas's first husband; two songs
written about Thomas during her heyday -- "Oh
Glorious Lady" and "The More I See of Somebody
Else, the More I Think You."
The collection offers appetizing morsels of Thomas
but it leaves one slack-jawed and hungry for more.
Based upon "The Flapper," Thomas appears to be an
actress well in need of rediscovery. The film
conveys Thomas's joie de vivre, so that is simply
sad that Thomas ended her life so young. As a
character remarks in "The Flapper," "If life
offers so many adventures, why die?" |
